Who Will President Trump Pardon Next? Roger Stone Sentenced

Update: 4:05 p.m. EST

President Trump said Thursday there would be no immediate pardon for his longtime confidant Roger Stone and instead would let “the process to be played out.”

I’m not going to do anything in terms of the great powers bestowed upon the president of the United States,” Trump said during a speech at the Hope for Prisoners graduation ceremony. He added: “I personally think he was treated very unfairly.”

Trump added Stone has a “very good chance of exoneration” and criticized the forewoman of his jury, Tomeka Hart, as an “anti-Trump activist.”

Original story

A federal judge Thursday sentenced Trump friend and longtime adviser Roger Stone to three years in prison for lying to Congress, witness tamping and obstruction of justice, saying he was prosecuted for "covering up for the president."

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, delayed incarceration to give Stone's attorneys time to appeal for a new trial. His attorneys had sought a sentence of probation.

“The truth still exists, the truth still matters,” Jackson said in imposing the 40-month sentence to be followed by two years supervised release and $20,000 fine. “Roger Stone’s insistence that it doesn’t, his belligerence, his pride in his own lies are a threat to our most fundamental institutions, to the foundations of our democracies. If it goes unpunished it will not be a victory for one political party; everyone loses.”

The case roiled the Justice Department after President Trump tweeted about the case and proposed sentence, Attorney General William Barr overruled the sentencing recommendations submitted by prosecutors, and the four prosecutors withdrew to protest the interference with one resigning outright.

Speculation was rampant Trump would pardon Stone, 67, sooner rather than later in light of his actions earlier this week, granting clemency to disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, junk bond king Michael Milken and former 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo. The president said Tuesday he hadn’t “given any thought” to pardoning Stone.

However, in a tweet Wednesday, Trump included a clip of Tucker Carlson saying: “Trump could end this travesty in an instant with a pardon and there are indications tonight that he will do that. … Democrats will become unhinged if Trump pardons Stone, but they’re unhinged anyway.”

The prosecutors had recommended Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison for trying to derail the investigation into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Trump has called Stone’s prosecution unfair, saying it was based on bogus information in a dossier on Trump commissioned by Democrats ahead of the 2016 election.

Jackson said Stone was not prosecuted for standing up for the president; rather, "he was prosecuted for covering up for the president." She also called out Barr for his intervention, calling it unprecedented.

Trump has been tweeting and retweeting furiously about the Stone case and the Russia investigation this week, calling for the prosecution of investigators and prosecutors, and attacking the judge.

He also called on Barr to “clean shop” at the Justice Department. Instead, Barr reportedly was considering his own resignation. He called on Trump to stop tweeting about criminal cases, a suggestion Trump promptly ignored. On Tuesday, Trump declared himself the nation’s “chief law enforcement officer.”

Stone was convicted in November on all seven counts with which he was charged. Former Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon described Stone in testimony as the campaign’s unofficial “access point” to WikiLeaks.